


Part 3: Escape the Dungeon

by HeroOfMorderan



Series: Hero of Morderan [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 17:23:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11925645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeroOfMorderan/pseuds/HeroOfMorderan





	Part 3: Escape the Dungeon

I woke up to the taste of dirt in my mouth. The only light in the room came from a small window in the door. I groaned as the light was blocked by Curtlik looking through the window. I moved to join her, only to discover I was bound. Looking over, I saw a coil of rope next to a body shaped spot in the dirt. I strained against my own rope, but Curtlik quickly came to untie me. Getting up, I was able to fully assess the room. It was dirty. Not a cluttered, messy dirty either, in fact, it was empty save the rope, but unclean. The air hung thick with dirt, and moving felt like I was wading through a cloud of filth. My sweaty clothes clung to my body, attracting more of the Earth, turning it into mud on my skin.  
I don’t remember too much about what was going through my head. This was the first time I was ever captured, which was exciting. I think I would have been more panicked if Curtlik wasn’t there. Seeing her up and assessing the situation made me feel comfortable. I was looking forward to working with her, shared experiences bring people closer, and nothing says team building like escaping your captors.  
There wasn’t much to learn about our situation, but Curtlik filled me in with what wasn’t immediately clear. We seemed to be captured by some humanoid lizards. Whoever is on guard comes to check on us every ten minutes or so. Our immediate concern was escaping, which was a problem because all of our equipment was taken. It would have been nice if there was a nail or something on the ground to use to pick the lock, but I wasn’t able to find one lying around.  
Curtlik seemed to be prepared, though. Hidden in her hair was a small needle. It was amazing, within seconds she had the door unlocked. I guess I wasn’t hiding my admiration, because when she looked over, she returned the smile that unconsciously grew across my face. Without weapons, I grabbed the rope in the room. I tossed Curtlik hers and wrapped one end around each of my fists. She flashed me a quick smile and nodded, wrapping her right fist in the rope.  
The cell we were in was at the end of a long hall. The only light came from a torch around the corner. It cast a shadow along the wall of the creature guarding us. We moved quickly down the inside wall. As we crept closer, the smell began to grow stronger. The hot, wet air carried the smell of rotting fish. It crawled along my skin with each step, and by the time we were half way down the hall I was franticly finding ways to breath without gagging. Pivoting, Curtlik covered my mouth with her free hand. Her eyes communicated her impatience with me more than any words could.  
I don’t want her to feel like she’s stuck with me. I mean, I’d like to be useful and not just a risk factor here. She’s so hard to get a read on, is she mad she’s stuck with me on this mission? I’m sure she would prefer to do this alone.  
We inched towards the end of the hallway. The smell grew stronger still, but I managed to hide any sign of my suffocating discomfort. The shadow of what must have been one of the lizard people was large on the wall to our side. Silently, Curtlik communicated our plan. She didn’t speak, but I was able to understand every word. I felt light inside, I was so excited to team up with her. A moment after I nodded in readiness, Curtlik swung out from behind the wall. I was close behind her, and when she swept the feet out from under the creature, I was there to wrap my rope around his neck and drag him into the dark hallway with us.  
Curtlik kept watch as the silent gasps and struggles of the lizard weakened until he fell unconscious. When it was over, I brought the torch he had dropped over to get a good look at the creature. He was maybe five feet tall and slender. His skin was a smooth teal that glistened in the light. Looking closer, I realized his body was actually covered in small scales. He had simple leather armor covering his top half, but his legs were only protected by his natural armor. His tail fell down by his feet, just two long toes with short talons at the end. His thin claws were still grasping the rope around his neck, and his mouth lay open, revealing rows of small teeth and a dark blue tongue.  
I wondered about him. I considered our shared experience as a guard, and what else we may have shared. I wondered who he was. I thought back to the goblin.  
I didn’t think for long, because Curtlik mentioned that we had to keep moving. She had a spear the lizard must have been holding, and gave me the torch to carry with us. Slowly, we moved down the hallway. My eyes watered at the smell, it was terrible. At the end of the hallway, it turned left and right. We couldn’t see what was on the right, but two more lizard creatures were standing on the left. One had a club, the other a short sword. They spoke in faint hisses, almost whispers.  
My blood was pumping, the excitement of battle coursed through me. Thanks to the adrenaline from escaping, I didn’t even fear death the whole time like when I went through that goblin cave, it was really cool! I could get use to this.  
Again, Curlik turned to me, this time only for us to exchange knowing glances. She turned and threw the spear into the lizard holding the short sword. The hallway filled with a painful hiss as he stumbled backward. My target was the second lizard. Moving quickly, I tackled him to the ground.  
He was strong despite his size. We struggled briefly before he threw me to the dirt. Cutrlik was ready, and she kept him off balance with repeated blows to the face and chest. I went to retrieve the spear, but couldn’t miss watching her controlled attacks. Each hit flowed into the next, constantly driving the lizard creature back. Her eyes never left his.  
Even as he fell to the floor, his body visibly bleeding a dark green slime, she watched her enemy. She looked to me now, the fight was still in her eyes. I could only wonder what she thought. There was no time, and she suggested we move on under her breath.  
We investigated the other direction of the hallway. It didn’t lead far, just to a small alcove, but it seemed to be some kind of nest. In it were piles of small eggs the size of pebbles. Their dark gray color blended with the poorly lit ground and walls on which they held. A thin film of slime, like the creature’s blood but bluer, covered the egg sacs and covered the surrounding surfaces. The smell was strongest here, I swear I still smell it on my clothes.  
There was nothing to gain there, so we moved on. I turned to walk back down the hallway, hopefully out of this cave. Curtlik followed behind and soon took point. We still hadn’t found our gear, so I grabbed the short sword one of the lizards had, while Curtlik carried the spear. The path was short, but we took our time, searching for traps or more guards. Eventually, it opened up to a large cavern. The stone walls curved high into a dome shape and seemed to be decorated with artistic paintings. Two things caught my eye: the first was our items resting on the wall to our right, the other was the sun shining bright through the opening on the other side of the room.  
A third thing, though not immediately in my sights, quickly became apparent. Out from the dark contrast of light from the exit came a hulkish creature. He was a humanoid lizard, just like the others, but easily twice as tall and three times as wide. The bones of his spine were raised and the sharp gaze of his orange eyes shot across at us. He held a giant club in one hand, the end of it rested in the other. In a hiss, he spoke. Each sentence trailing off under his breath.  
“SSSoooo… you try to essssscapppeee? I don’t thhhhinnkkk King Galithhhannn would likeee thattttt. Nooo, the sssssswoordssssss arrrre hissssssss.”  
I don’t know how she did it, but Curtlik seemed to be unaffected by the creature’s words. She even called back that the swords belonged to Haledine before running towards the beast. I had to take a moment. How did King Galithan know anything about the swords still being around, and what do these lizard creatures have to do with it?  
The moment was short lived, though, and I told myself that I’d have to come up with answers later, because as talented as Curtlik is, she’d need my help if she wanted to take down that creature. The lizard was preparing for an attack as Curtlik readied her spear, charging our foe. I wondered if she was anticipating my moves, playing off a strategy I hadn’t yet come up with myself. I decided to do what I thought she’d think I’d do, and ran to toss her my sword as she launched her spear into the bicep of the lizard.  
The creature recoiled as the spear drove into his arm, sending dark blood spitting into the air. Without pause, Curlik reached out to grab the sword I threw her. Using the momentum of the sword, she spun, slashing the lizard across his chest. He hissed loud in anger and brought his club down on Curtlik, but she stayed strong against the blow. There wasn’t much I could do empty handed, so my eyes raced to find something I could use to help.  
I had to be fast, Curtlik couldn’t hold off that lizard for long. She was blocking his club with her sword and jumping over his tail strikes, but who knows how long she was going to be able to keep that up. I just thought about how mad she probably is that I’m not helping. I considered just cheering her on, instead I decided to just shout “what do you want me to do?!”  
“Get our stuff!” she shouted back. There was urgency in her voice. Of course, I even saw our stuff before!  
I felt so embarrassed, I should have known that! “Right!” I called back. Not to let her down again, I sprinted to our items. Instinctually, my hand went to my bow. No, I can’t use that here, I thought. I can’t risk hitting Curtlik, she’s moving around so much, she might run into the arrow. It was sword time.  
Running to join my partner, I waited for the lizard to swing. When it was too late for him to block my attack, I stabbed under his arm. My sword broke his skin and slid deep into his body. I twisted my handle and pushed harder. His knees buckled as his strength left his body. I thought to myself “this was easier than I thought.” Curtlik did do all the hard work, I just stabbed once.  
I thought a little too soon. The creature what definitely weaker, but he wasn’t defeated. His rage now turned towards me. Swinging his club down on me, I braced myself for the attack, using my sword for defense. I don’t know how Curtlik did it. My sword was no match for the attack, and I stumbled back off balance.  
He wasn’t done, and he raised the club high over his head. It was aimed right for me, and if it hit it’d break my neck. I was frozen. I knew I was fast enough to dodge the attack, but in that moment I was still shaken from the previous hit. The only thing that crossed my mind was Curtlik. She’s put with me on this quest and I die the first time we fight together? I let her down. And how the heck did she fight this thing by herself? It probably wasn’t even a minute and I was going to die.  
I closed my eyes when I saw the club come down. I was like that for a few seconds before I realized that it shouldn’t take this long to get hit. It’s because I didn’t get hit at all. My eyes opened to Curtlik holding the club up with her sword. Her voice strained with her struggle, but I heard her order “go!”  
I sprung into action. I was going to end this. Before the lizard had time to react, my sword slit open his left side. Furiously, I cut at his back. When he spun around to attack, I was prepared. I jumped back as he over swung, giving Cutrlik the opening she needed to end the battle. I admit the fight could have gone better, I didn’t carry my weight and definitely let Curtlik down, but I think at the end we finally got into a good system. One of us fighting while the other rests, then we switch out. I still think we’re a great team. Something was different about how she fought, I never saw it before.  
I wanted to ask her about it, but I wasn’t sure. When she protected me against the lizard’s club with her sword, I knew she was struggling against his strength. All her strength was going into it. I don’t know how to explain it, but stopping a swing with so much force like that just shouldn’t be possible. There’s no way she could have stopped it like she did, let alone get there in time to stop it in the first place. She put all her strength into it, and I wanted to ask her what she did to have that much power.  
I didn’t hear her cast any spell, and her hands were busy with stopping a club, so if it was magic, what kind? One that has no verbal or physical component? I’ve never heard of those. What’s more interesting to me was what happened to her when I ran around. I just caught a glimpse of it, but it stood out enough for my eyes to know it was different.  
The sleeves on her armor come about mid-way down her bicep. When I looked back, I saw something growing on her arm out from under her armor. They were like veins, spider webbing out across her arm. I even saw her hair blow slightly in a breeze I knew wasn’t there. When I saw them, they just passed her armor, and I thought I saw it spread up her neck a bit too, but they were gone once the battle was over. Depending on the light, they were either a deep purple or black. What was that? I want to ask, but I also don’t know if I want to know the answer. It seemed dark. If it is, it raises more questions that it can ever answer. I guess the point is she helped me. Maybe when we get to know each other better I’ll ask.  
It was getting dark when we left the dungeon, so we walked a bit and set up camp. There was this beautiful patch of grass up on a hill. I looked to the East. Haledine, our home, was back there. It was too dark to see, but I knew it was there. Turning, the desert fell into the sun on the horizon. I felt my nerves gather in my stomach thinking about the sword. It has to be well guarded, I was scared.  
Thinking about my nerves reminded me that it’s been a while since we ate. I asked Curtlik if she wanted to go hunting with me for dinner, I promised her we wouldn’t get ambushed this time. She laughed, then grabbed her bow. We explored the nearby grasslands for about a half hour. I wanted to talk to her, have some conversation, but I knew we had to focus. Instead, I thought about thinks to talk about later while we ate. Thinking about conversation topics, I’m surprised any conversation I’ve had lasted more than five minutes. It’s amazing how hard it is to come up with things to talk about on the spot, I don’t know how we’ll last a whole quest let alone dinner.  
We found a few birds standing tall in the grass. It wasn’t a feast, but it would do. While they were cooking over our campfire, I decided to break out my conversation starter. Yes, I only came up with one, but I was also hunting, so I think that’s pretty good.  
“You don’t ever get scared, going on missions? I mean, I took out a whole goblin cave by myself once, but I still had some nerves kicking in doors.” I asked, poking at the fire with a stick I found. The question sat in the air for a while. The fire cracked at the crisp night air. I questioned if that was a good question. Did I mess up? Do partners not talk about their fears? I should have asked a cooler question. I looked up from the fire. I saw the flames dance in Curtlik’s eyes as she looked down at the burning wood. She processed the question, taking each word and feeling into account, deconstructing its meaning. I definitely messed up.  
Then she smiled and let out a soft laugh. “Every time. I love it. I hope I get scared every time I go on a mission.” Her eyes left the fire and met mine. “Getting nervous means you care, it means what you’re doing matters to you. My fear reminds me to put everything I have into what I’m doing. I care, so I better do it right.”  
“Why do you care?” I asked. It occurred to me how much I didn’t know about her. She has a history, things she cares about, things she loves and things she hates. What did I really know about Curtlik? She’s the most talented person I know, she’s sweet and caring, but what did I really know? I decided then that my goal for this mission was to learn everything about her.  
“Haledine is my life, I owe it everything. I owe King Boridas everything. After the Great War, there were still supporters of King Galithan hiding, spreading evil.” She looked out into the distance, playing the story in her mind on the canvas of the night sky. “They came to our town one night. I was with my family, we were eating mushroom soup and singing, my father playing my favorite song on his lute. I was the perfect night. It was cool, so we kept the windows open. The first flaming arrow shot through and landed right in the kitchen. The second hit my mom. My dad told me to run to my room and hide in the closet while he helped my mom.”  
The fire reflected off the tears welling in her eyes.  
“It felt like I sat there for years. Whenever I would blink away my tears I would see the image of my mother die. The only thing I remember is a single scream of pain from my father. I knew in that moment that I was an orphan. If my dad died, no one else in the town could have survived. I was alone. The closet I was crouched in got hotter, our whole house was on fire. I screamed. Pleaded for anyone to save me. It was too hot to bang on the door and the smoke filling my lungs weakened my cries. The last thing I remember before passing out was a red shield with the crest of Haledine on it. King Boridas took me in, raised me and trained me. I owe him everything.”  
She let out another laugh and wiped away a tear. “So I care because I can never fully repay King Boridas and Haledine for what they did, but everything I do in their service brings me closer.”  
“I’m sorry.” I said. I wanted to say more. I wanted to, just give her a hug. Something more. I wanted to help, I wanted to get up right now and fight whoever I could fight. I wasn’t filled with anger, though I hated whoever shot those arrows, I was just filled with passion.  
“It’s ok.” She smiled at me. I knew there wasn’t anything I could do. I admired her, I couldn’t imagine what that was like for her. “I just want to get these swords and take down King Galithan.”  
“Yeah, we’ll get ‘em.” Her smile warmed, and I smiled back across the fire.  
“What about you, why do you care? I saw you writing before, it that for someone?”  
I appreciated her opening up, but I don’t think I was ready to open up about you just then. I told her that this was a special memory, getting to work with her and go on this adventure and that I didn’t want to forget any of it. It wasn’t entirely untrue, I don’t know what I like more, getting to spend time with her or to have the opportunity to help the King. I think she knew I was hiding something. She looked at me across the fire, her eyes shone through the top of the flames. She either didn’t care or didn’t want to press.  
Maybe she knows about you? I thought there would have been stories, maybe rumors. She probably heard some mutation of the truth, she might even know more. I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about you yet, at least not to her.  
She understood, and we spent the rest of the night talking about strategy for when we get to where the first sword was. Curtlik went out to scout the area after dinner, and I stayed back to watch the camp. I went to bed that night wondering what Curtlik thought of me, and how much she knew about me before we met. If I get the chance, I think I’ll open up to her more. Partners need to trust each other. I also wondered about that lizard and what he said about Galithan and the swords. Tomorrow’s a new day, tomorrow we’re getting the Earth Blade.


End file.
